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29 August 2016

Knuckles 101 Part II- Preemptive and Infight Striking

The following information is for educational purposes only. Striking someone with any object could cause possible serious physical injury or death.

In Knuckles 101 Part 1- Selection, Carry, Deployment, & Use we only glanced over "use" so here is the follow up to further discuss striking with knuckles.

Alpha Innovations Jaw Jackers

No matter the type of altercation someone always has to make the first physical move. In the historical use of knuckles, it was usually the guy with the knuckles who probably struck first and last. As I mentioned in Part I, the users of knuckles, saps, and jacks on both sides of the law had the the luxury of testing things out more than we do these days. A cop wanted to take the wind out of a drunk's sails to drag him to the call box, and the mugger just wanted to be able to rob someone without them putting up a fight.

Knuckles are a different tool than others because they are "on" your hand instead of just in it. This has both pros and cons. The pro is that muscles contract under stress so your hand is going to clinch around the knuckles during a fight so you will not drop them. Then there is the con, more likely, people will be wearing them improperly as rings and they will not be able to get them off after the hand swells from use. That is if they slid on and off easily to begin with.

For our purposes, we will discuss the use of knuckles in two different scenarios; preemptive striking and infight striking. An easy definition of preemptive striking is one that is thrown first because you know a fight is eminent. Whether you have a weapon or not, you know in your heart that you better make it good because you never get a second chance to make a first impression.

Infight striking is pretty self-explanatory. It is striking during a fight in progress.

In MCS, we talk about default vs intentional targeting. Intentional targeting is obviously much easier when the other fella is standing still and or not expecting it. Neither of these things exist during the fight. Fighting is like sex in that there are only so many ways that two people fit together at contact distance. Therefore it only makes sense to familiarize yourself with the positions you are most likely to end up in, and take note as to which targets present themselves in these positions.

Face it, you can hit anybody just about anywhere on their body when your hands are covered with metal to get their attention. The specific targeting here has been chosen specifically because they are also effective with the open hand.

Strike to the Zygomatic Arch

Zygomatic Arch- this is one of my favorite targets. If I have not mentioned it yet, now would be a good time. I have never hit anyone with a pair of knuckles. That said I have used palm smashes ( not the whole palm, the base of your palm, about the last 2-3 inches). Take that part of your palm and push it up under your cheekbone (Zygomatic Arch) and you find it fits there like a puzzle piece. A strike to this area rocks the head backwards. This is a great shot for gaining distance and backing people up. This strike is likely to cause a fracture, especially with knuckles. The skeletal structure here is relatively weak and forms the bottom of the orbital socket.

C-Clamp Choke- obviously not a strike, but I love it anyway. Can be done open

C-Clamp Choke using knuckles

handed by hooking your thumb on the inside of the windpipe while using your two middle fingers to hook the carotid artery and squeezing them together. This is an airway and a blood choke. It also has the added benefit of moving the windpipe out of the natural anatomical position that allows normal breathing. If you have small or weak hands doing the choke with knuckles (or a sturdy pen) increases effectiveness.

Temple- with or without knuckles, most will agree that a strike to the temple can

Strike to the temple

cause death.

Strike to eye socket

Eye socket- attacking the eye in any fashion could result in loss of that eye. Even if you control where your strike and how hard you strike, you cannot control the internal damage.

Forehead (knuckle dusting)- where the term knuckle dusters came from. The

"Knuckledusting" across the forehead

skin on the head is pretty tight and prone to ripping and tearing when contact with the striking object continues after the initial impact. This is what makes this so effective, the possibility exists for there to actually be four separate impacts and rips from one strike. Some may have heard of the "veil of blood" concept in their study of edged weapons. The idea is to rip the forehead open so that blood flows into the eyes effecting eye sight. The same thing could be achieved here. Strike is done at an angle across the forehead. Of all the strikes shown and discussed, I believe this is the one that knuckles standout in comparison to other impact weapons.

Striking the ribs and intercostal muscles

Ribs- once you are to the outside of your attacker, his ribs are wide open to you. In the picture you can see that I am using a hammer fist to take advantage of the top of the pinkie side knuckle, the same things could be done with thumb side knuckle. Not only would this do more damage to bone, but it would also do a good job at causing trauma to the intercostal muscles between the ribs.

Collarbone- a hammer fist can break or dislocate the collarbone, making the entire arm useless.

Obviously this is not an exhaustive list of targets or strikes using knuckles. Please feel free to share your comments. As always, we appreciate your feedback.